Thin and powerful: Gamer notebook from MSI

Even though the gamer notebook from MSI is designed to be very thin and almost approaches the mass of an ultrabook, it cannot be compared to one. Because here you won't find sparse cooling slots, thanks to which the CPU or GPU have to be throttled down at some point during operation. The design of the notebook proves even before the first start that the air can circulate sufficiently well here. I'm glad I'm not testing an Apple with oversized hardware in an undersized case at an outrageous price. No, I'm really looking forward to this.

Notebooks

MSI GS65 Stealth Thin - 512GB - GS65 8RF-078

15.60", Intel Core i7-8750H, 16 GB, 512 GB, DE

Notebooks

MSI GS65 Stealth Thin - 512GB - GS65 8RF-078

15.60", Intel Core i7-8750H, 16 GB, 512 GB, DE

This is what the device has under the bonnet:

• Intel Core i7-8750H
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q
• 16 GB RAM
• 512 GB SSD
• 15.6" Full HD IPS display with 144 Hz refresh rate (anti-glare)
• Speakers, microphone and 720p front camera
• SteelSeries RGB gaming keyboard
• 4-cell lithium polymer battery with 82 Wh
• Windows 10 Home

If you would like to have more RAM, this would be possible without any problems, as up to 32 GB is supported. However, both slots are already occupied. But 16 GB is enough to enjoy the latest games in 1080p.

Design and connections

MSI uses black aluminium for the chassis, which is also my preferred material. It is not only pleasant to the touch, but also dissipates heat well and accommodates the overall weight of the notebook. This weighs 1.8 kg. As a decorative touch, MSI has given the notebook lid and touchpad a copper-look border.

In terms of dimensions, MSI says that a 15.6" notebook has been put into a 14" chassis. In view of the thin edges around the display, MSI is not entirely wrong, despite the marketing argument. I measure 6 mm on the sides and 9 mm above the display. However, the edge below the display is a fat 2.9 cm. The notebook itself has a height of 1.77 cm, a length of 24.8 cm and a width of 35.8 cm.

In contrast to other manufacturers, who only like to install Thunderbolt or USB-C, MSI relies on a good mix of old and new for the connections. On the right-hand side, you'll find USB 3.1 Type-A and a Thunderbolt 3 port, which you can also connect USB-C devices to. There is also a Mini-DisplayPort, HDMI and power connection. On the left-hand side, there are two jack connections for headphones and microphone, two more USB 3.1 Type-A ports and a LAN port. If you wish, you also have the option of attaching a Kensington lock.

1080p display with 144 Hz

Even though the notebook's display only has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, I was immediately impressed. It is anti-glare, 15.6" in size and comes with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. Once you've used a 144 Hz display for a long time, you won't want to do without it. It's easy on your eyes, so only thirst and hunger stand in the way of long gaming sessions. Well, it's a shame that the 144 Hz can't be used in conjunction with G-Sync, as this function is completely missing. However, the Nvidia Optimus technology ensures a longer runtime.

The colour scheme looks natural thanks to the IPS panel and, on top of that, the display looks rich in contrast, regardless of the viewing angle. The brightness is 286 cd/m², which unfortunately means it can only be used to a limited extent in sunshine. A garden LAN party is therefore not a good idea.

RGB gamer keyboard from SteelSeries

The key travel is short at 1.4 mm and you feel a clear but not too extreme trigger point. I get along very well with this when gaming. Thanks to RGB lighting, you can configure the keys individually as you like. Or go all disco and choose from countless predefined lighting patterns.

The touchpad measures a comfortable 107 x 71 mm, supports multi-touch and responds precisely to all swipes, as it should.

Sound from Dynaudio

The speakers take up the entire width above the keyboard. If you press on the aluminium above it, it seems to be a little too thin and gives way slightly. This could be improved. The highs sound clean when listening to the test, but the mids are lacking and the bass is miserably lacking. I can't hear the Dynaudio quality advertised as top speakers on the MSI homepage.

On the other hand, the notebook scores points when using a headset. With Nahimic 3, you get a sound control centre in which you can make many settings for gaming and watching films with 3D sound. Windows Sonic technology and Dolby Atmos for Headphones are available for virtual surround sound.

Battery performance

MSI has installed a 4-cell lithium-polymer battery with 82 Wh, which is relatively generous for a notebook with the given small dimensions.

HeavyLoad

With the HeavyLoad stress test, I push all the hardware to its limits and find out how long the notebook lasts under full load. The result: 1 hour and 44 minutes

Not bad performance. When I tested the ASUS ZenBook Pro 15, which has the same processor but a GeForce GTX 1050, it only lasted 32 minutes with a 71 WH battery

Youtube continuous streaming

When streaming YouTube continuously, I set the display brightness to medium. The automatic shutdown occurs after 6 hours and 5 minutes. This is not necessarily a good result, as a look at the review of the recently compared five ultrabooks reveals. In this, the MSI GS65 would end up in last place together with the ZenBook Pro.

At least I get 8 to 9 hours of runtime when working in the office.

CPU

The Intel Core i7-8750H is a high-performance mobile 64-bit hexa-core high-end processor. It was introduced at the beginning of 2018 and is based on the Coffee Lake microarchitecture. It is manufactured using Intel's improved third-generation 14nm++ process.

The i7-8750H employees at a clock speed of 2.2 GHz and has a TDP of 45 W. It also has a turbo boost of up to 4.1 GHz. The processor itself supports up to 64 GB DDR4-2666 RAM (dual channel). The chip is also equipped with Intel's UHD Graphics 630 GPU.

Graphics card

The mobile high-end GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q is based on the Pascal architecture. The version installed here has 8 GB GDDR5 video RAM (connection via 256-bit interface). It is manufactured using the 16 nm process and employees at a frequency of 1101 to 1215 MHz (boost from 1265 to 1379 MHz). The power consumption of the card is 80 to 90 watts. The performance of the card can vary depending on the cooling system and housing used.

Performance

To test the performance, I ran various benchmarks; Cinebench R15, 3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy as well as three in-game benchmarks.

Cinebench R15

With Cinebench from Maxon, you can test how your PC would perform when rendering Cinema 4D content. The benchmark is focussed on floating point performance. Processors with more cores will always deliver a better result here. If you want to compare processors with Cinebench R15, this is only possible if both processors have the same number of threads.

How the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 8RF performs:

The GS65 achieves 101.05 fps when rendering with OpenGL. For comparison: The Asus ROG Zephyrus with GTX 1080 Max-Q design reached 110.31 fps.

The CPU i7-8750H scored 1102 points in the tested system. The same processor achieved 1131 points in the Asus ROG Zephyrus.

3DMark Fire Strike

The Fire Strike benchmark from 3DMark can be used to test and compare gaming PCs. It renders in 1080p using DirectX 11.

The MSI notebook achieved a score of 12 205 here. The result can be compared on the manufacturer's website. The GTX 1070 achieves more than double the score of the Zenbook Pro with GTX 1050 (5135 points) and 2600 points less than the ROG Zephyrus with GTX 1080.

3DMark Time Spy

In contrast to Fire Strike, the Time Spy benchmark runs with DirectX 12 and is rendered with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels.

The MSI GS65 achieves a score of 4746 points. You can view the result here online. An average gaming notebook scores 3879 points in this benchmark.

In-game benchmarks

A quick word on noise emissions:
The notebook remains relatively quiet during the benchmarks. However, when I play for a longer period of time, I measure around 50 decibels from my sitting position. Directly behind the notebook, it's even around 70 - whereas the notebook only reaches around 32 decibels when idling. To be fair, it has to be said that my measurement method is not really accurate; it's a Huawei smartphone.

"Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation"

This game is popular for benchmarking and can push practically any system to its limits. The graphics settings are set to the highest possible quality for the test, i.e. "Crazy". The benchmark uses DirectX 12.

With 1080p resolution, an average of 37.8 fps is possible here, which can be enough for gaming in a strategy game.

"Assassin's Creed Origins"

"Assassin's Creed Origins" is more demanding on the processor than other games. For now, I'm testing with the highest settings (Extremely High) at 1080p.

Not bad. At 58 fps, you can play a decent game. But it bothers me that the result here is only "mediocre". Even if the limit for the "High" rating is 60 fps, I can't let that sit on me.

I run a second test round with the settings set to Very High.

There it is at last, the desired "high" in performance. :)

"Far Cry 5"

In "Far Cry 5", the benchmark only reflects a real game to a limited extent, as there are no quick turns. Once again, I set the quality to the highest possible level at 1080p resolution.

An average of 62 fps is quite decent. With the Zenbook Pro (GTX 1050), only 42 fps were possible with the same quality.

Conclusion: Not a gaming revolution, but an awesome device with minor drawbacks

What MSI has delivered here is a really beautiful product on the outside. I love the sleek aluminium look with copper trim. Apart from the aluminium above the speakers, which gives way a little under light pressure, the notebook has an absolutely solid finish. I don't miss anything in terms of the connections. The processor and GPU deliver great performance thanks to good cooling, which is mostly sufficient for gaming with the highest graphics quality. What I don't like is that the manufacturer talks about hi-fi quality, even though the built-in speakers actually sound subterranean. Unfortunately, this is also the case with many other notebooks.

The built-in display, on the other hand, is excellent. Even if you have to do without G-Sync, your eyes will thank you when you're gaming and employing 144 Hz refresh rates. All in all, this gaming notebook can be highly recommended. The given price is in line with the performance compared to other gaming notebooks. If you want even more gaming performance, you should at best take a look at the slightly more expensive Asus ROG Zephyrus.